Bill & Boyd "Songs For A Cloudy Summer Afternoon" 1964

...Bill & Boyd recorded first for the Peak label – their 1960 debut ‘Fall in Love With You’ was produced by renowned big band leader and arranger Don Richardson – and from 1961 were on Philips. The latter sessions took place in Wellington, and some were produced by Peter Posa. After late nights in the studio, Posa would sleep on the couch of Cate’s mother, wake up for breakfast and thank her by setting up his gear in the lounge and playing through his repertoire....
...Early recordings were often cover versions of songs that were hits overseas but not released in New Zealand; many were on the Everly Brothers’ label, Warners, which didn’t have distribution in New Zealand. Bill & Boyd would record songs from Australian station 2UE and transcribe them through the static.
Competition for cover versions among New Zealand artists was intense, said Robertson, describing the process to Gordon Campbell in 1978: “We’d try and get the jump by running through the American Hot 100 chart and picking out the fast movers to record before we even heard them. One time we had this fast mover all set up to do, we’d got the studio ready, and then the disc arrived – it was the Ventures’ ‘Walk Don’t Run’, an insturmental. How were we to know? They were really crazy days.”
They earned a place on Harry M. Miller’s Showtime Spectacular tours, variety shows that featured the Howard Morrison Quartet at the top of the bill, supported by acts such as Toni Williams and magician Jon Zealando. The massive success of these nationwide tours underwrote many of Miller’s other ventures, and they gave Bill & Boyd experience that led to many gigs supporting overseas visitors. Morrison suggested they try their luck on the Australian club circuit, and from 1965 Bill & Boyd – and their wives – were permanently based across the Tasman.
Besides gigs in Sydney’s clubland, the duo often performed on TV shows such as Bandstand and Six O’Clock Rock. An early breakthrough came in 1964 with their single ‘Chulu Chululu’, recorded live the previous year at the Rotorua Soundshell. Cate described this singalong as their riposte to Beatlemania: “We figured you couldn’t get anything much different than a Fijian folk song with a Liverpool beat.” It reached #10 in Australia just as the Beatles were visiting that country, remained in the charts for six weeks and in Australian memories for longer – it was re-released there twice, in 1973 and 1975...to be continued... - audioculture

trax:
01 A Lot Of Living To Do 02 Cloudy Summer Afternoon 03 Let Him Go 04 Just Another Fool 05 Warmed Over Kisses (Left Over Love) 06 Are You Kissing More Now_ 07 Jezebel 08 Sing Sing Sing 09 Primrose Lane 10 Sandy Sandy 11 A Doodlin' Song 12 Laughing Girl 13 Every Time I Feel The Spirit 14 Chulu Chululu 15 Holiday Hootenanny (Bonus Track) 16 He's Got The Whole World In His Hands (Bonus Track) 17 Just Walkin' Alone (Bonus Track) 18 Don't Take It Away (Bonus Track) 19 Once In A While (Bonus Track)
…served by Gaius…